I’m heading back to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba today

It’s 3:59 a.m. and I just arrived at Andrews Air Force Base for my 5th or 6th trip to Cuba since the 2016 summer, and my second trip to Guantanamo Bay since the November Presidential Election.

4:15 a.m. Sunday at Andrews Air Force Base.

This time I’m monitoring hearings in the US Military Commission against al Nashiri, who allegedly masterminded the 2000 attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, killing and wounding dozens of US sailors. He is charged with a series of war crimes and faces the death penalty.

The Andrews USO area.

My job as a human rights law monitor (or observer) is to attend, observe, analyze, critique and report on these pre-trial hearings. We are interested in whether the rights and interests of all military commmission shareholders are being afforded to them. “Stakeholders” include the defendants, and also include the victims and their families, the media, the prosecution, witnesses, the US and international communities, among others.

This should be an interesting week. We have 5 days of pre-trial hearings scheduled. The issues are plentiful, with some being novel.

Endorsements

“While [at Guantanamo Bay] I was given a copy of the Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual for U.S. Military Commissions. I read it cover to cover. This is simply required reading for anyone who goes [to Guantanamo Bay] to observe. Thank you for the enormous effort it must have taken to produce it.
[NGO Observer, 2014]

After reading the Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual, "I feel a high calling to meet the obligations you note for an observer to report what they have observed.”
[NGO Observer, 2014]